The 2021 Formula One season creeps closer and of course as the teams prepare to unveil their latest cars, talk will begin to turn towards what we can expect on the grid this year. Will Lewis Hamilton win yet another world title? He’s certainly the favourite to do as he looks to become the outright most successful driver in F1 history.

But while the seven-time champion, level with Ferrari icon Michael Schumacher, will no doubt have loved his success-laden Mercedes years, he’s repeatedly made it clear he’d love a tougher challenge in 2021.

For the Brit, now 36 and a free agent until he signs a new deal with Mercedes as Express Sport understand he eventually will, it all began at McLaren.

Hamilton began his F1 career there in 2007 and won his first title the next season having missed out on the Drivers’ Championship in his first campaign by a single point to Kimi Raikkonen.

And Hamilton has made it clear there is no team he would rather jump into title contention into 2021 than his former employers, who have Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris as their driver line-up this year.

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Former Red Bull driver Ricciardo joins from Renault, having clinched two podiums last year, and has seven race wins and 31 podiums to his name thus far while Norris, still only 21, has managed a single podium in his two seasons so far.

The pair are expected to be a hugely entertaining pairing both on and off the track and speaking back in December, Hamilton said of the team who finished only behind Mercedes and Red Bull in the 2020 Constructors’ standings: “I was really happy to see the McLaren so close, particularly with how they’ve got changes and they’re using our engine this year.

“It was great to see that at the end of the year with a good car so that they can perhaps be in the fight with us this year.

“If that makes it a three-way team championship, I think that would be amazing for the fans to see.”

Whether McLaren can really bridge the gap to Red Bull and Mercedes is another matter entirely though they will hope the return of Mercedes engines can allow the Woking-based outfit to maintain their upward trajectory.

The Silver Arrows’ other championship threat is clear, with Max Verstappen leading the fight against the Mercs in the Red Bull, and his chances of downing Hamilton and co are strengthened by Sergio Perez’s move to the team after a strong year with Racing Point.

So would Hamilton it seems, and if the reigning champion’s hopes for McLaren and Red Bull can come true, there would be endless entertainment in the battles that would create.

Hamilton, Verstappen and Ricciardo would be the three main contenders in such a scenario but Valtteri Bottas, Perez and Norris would compete for plenty of race wins and podiums of their own.

It has been some time since three teams were all genuinely in the mix for the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships but clearly Hamilton is hopeful 2021 can be different.

Let’s hope McLaren and Ricciardo and Red Bull and Verstappen can rise to the challenge. What a spectacle it would be.